decided to form a "Young People's Department," directly attached and fully subordinate to the National Office of the adult SPA. Formal establishment of the YPSL as the official youth section of the Socialist Party began at this date. By February 1914 the YPSL reported a membership total of 4,800, split into 112 circles.<ref name=Peterson35>Peterson, 'The Young Socialist Movement in America from 1905 to 1940, pg. 35.</ref> An additional 18 circles were in the process of being organized at that time. Members were kept abreast of developments of the organization in the pages of a monthly journal, The Young Socialists' Magazine, with a circulation of 10,000. World War I and the Independent YPSL In 1915 a unified national YPSL was formally launched when various local Circles adopted a constitution by a referendum vote. Two years later, YPSL National Secretary William "Bill" Kruse reported the group had a membership of about 5,000, spread in Circles in 147 cities. With the coming of American entry into World War I, National Secretary Kruse was one of five top leaders of the SPA targeted for prosecution by the United States Department of Justice. Kruse was hauled into court, tried, and sentenced to 20 years in prison for purported violation of the wartime "Espionage Act" — a sentence which was finally overturned on appeal on grounds of judicial prejudice in 1920. In 1919, the organized faction known as the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party exited the SPA to form two organizations which would eventually unite as the Communist Party USA. The YPSL, headed by Left Wing supporter Oliver Carlson and generally sympathetic to the perspective of the Left Wing, initially attempted to chart an independent course from either the Socialist Party or the nascent Communist Labor Party of America and Communist Party of America. This independent course terminated financial support for the organization from the SPA, however, and the so-called Independent Young People's Socialist League essentially disintegrated, with many of the active leaders in the group enlisting in the underground communist movement, while others drifted away from political activity altogether. 1921 reorganization The Socialist Party reorganized the YPSL with Bill Kruse reelected as its secretary, but he, too, departed the Socialist Party for the Communist movement in 1921. The league was once again relaunched at a 1922 convention, with Albert Weisbord as national secretary. Weisbord managed to rebuild a network of YPSL Circles but